Lord of the Flies

Photo credit - Melynne Stone (via A.P.)

This is one for the record books! Jamison Stone, an eleven year old student who just completed Grade 6 in school, killed this 1,051 wild hog near Anniston, Alabama on May 3, 2007. In the photo he poses with the gun he used in the hunt. It's a customized .50 calibre Smith & Wesson revolver, and his loads were 350 grain Hornady bullets. According to the Associated Press article making the rounds Jamison said "he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50-caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot."

Now before anyone howls about "kids with guns" I hasten to add that his father accompanied him in the chase and had a high powered rifle ready at all times in case the monstrous porker charged. The beast was sporting five inch long tusks which can kill a man quite handily. As the wheel holds only five .500 rounds the boy had to stop to reload at least once. Mr. Stone allowed his son to complete the hunt on his own terms, and it's unlikely the lad will ever have an experience to equal it.

This is the Smith & Wesson Model 500 hunting revolver used in the story. It retails for a healthy US$1,462. so it is definately for serious shooters only. This example from the S&W online catalog is stainless, while Jamison used a blued example. It is good that the young fellow is himself rather well built, because this firearm packs quite a kick.

About a month ago I spotted an interesting photo of a pack of wild boar on a roadside in Estonia and I have been saving it in my photo bin. Note that these animals are using their tusks to rip up the grass looking for edible grubs or roots. These are smaller animals, but equally dangerous.

Jamison's proud dad had put up a website called "Monsterpig.com" but it has gone down - perhaps because readers of the AP story have overloaded the server. It's a fabulous adventure story. Jamison attends a private Christian Academy but is no choirboy. He's been hunting since age five.

Update: May 28, 2007 - It is truly amazing to witness the firestorm of hate comments which polluted the Internet following the publication of Jamison's story. His father Melynne Stone has been called a fraud, a photoshop trickster, etc, and the boy has been called down. Why not visit their website yourself and bypass all the mealy mouthed commentary? http://www.stoneauctioneers.com/monsterpig/index.htm

UPDATE: Jan. 22, 2011 - I had an email from "D.J. " this AM, informing me that one of these photos had been digitally manipulated. That's common enough. In this blog I often trim photos for size or clarity or to add explanatory text. It seems the top photo in this blog article has been photo shopped to remove an adult. The effect of course is to intensify our sense of wonder - that this youth stood down a giant beast, kept his nerve, and took him down with a hand cannon. My article has been read every day since I posted it, proof of HOGZILLA's enduring appeal. William Golding's novel LORD OF THE FLIES also endures, and it too removed adults from the picture. So in the interest of fair play, I am providing a link to to the commentary on photo manipulation. http://66.226.75.96/pig/ It's not as BIG an issue as Obama's birth certificate, but the Jamison Stone hog killing is now a part of Americana. "Kill the beast, drink his blood!"